Great Music
This seems obvious, and it is, but that doesn't make it any less important. Good studio releases are crucial to enjoying a band live. After all, if you don't like their music, you're not going to enjoy watching the band live. For me, and many others, really knowing the bands music well, being able to sing along to all the classics, makes the experience even more intense.
A Talented Frontman/Frontwoman
In bands that aren't instrumental, the person who sings the main part, or the frontman, is a focal point for the crowd. It's not that the other members of the band aren't noticed or appreciated, but it's the job of the vocalist to get the crowd going and to make sure that the metaphorical gap between the band and the audience is bridged by the strength of their stage presence. An example of a frontman who has no shortage of this stage power is Iron Maiden's singer, Bruce Dickinson. I saw Iron Maiden at Sonisphere 2010 (see my articles on Sonisphere 2010 for more information), they headlined the Sunday night and brought the festival to a close. Iron Maiden were fantastic, and this is in no small part due to Dickinson's immense stage presence. He's very energetic, never in one place for
very long, enjoying leaping about the stage scenery. Furthermore he'll get the crowd going. A notable instance of this was when Iron Maiden played Sanctuary on their Live After Death live album. Part way through the song they paused save for the basic riff of the song; Bruce then went on to split the audience in two and pit them against each other in a contest to see who was the loudest. While this isn't a technique unique to Iron Maiden, it does take a certain calibre to pull off. So it's an example of the need for a skilled frontman to make the crowd scream.By Scott Penner [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31648498@N00/4770564075
Energy
Having energy in studio work and having energy on stage aren't necessarily the same thing. If a band has really great music, as described above, it really helps their live performance. However even if their music is fantastic the live show can suffer because they lack the stage presence necessary to deliver a great performance. A band that has such sheer power and presence the audience is blown away with gale force winds is Gallows. Having currently released two studio records, Gallows are one of the best live acts in the UK. They're that good. The raw tenacity of the vocals and riffs tears the ears of the listeners... in a good way. I saw them back in 2009 and I still consider it to be one of the best gigs I've ever been to. They're playing Sonisphere 2011 (blog posts to come) and I won't be missing them for anything. This year they're playing on the second stage which isn't their usual environment, they're used to playing in small indoor venues and tents, so it should be interesting to see how they fair on a large stage. I have no doubt whatsoever that they won't do anything but rule the stage.
An Amazing Show
Many bands try to put on a show for the crowd. This is often done with a simple light show that's in time with the music. However some bands go further. For instance Alice Cooper often has a whole horror performance with his songs integrates within it, making his live shows more like a musical. He calls it his "Theatre of Death". He played Sonisphere UK 2010 and it worked very well. Another band who specialise in putting on a show while they play are German In
dustrial metallers Rammstein. For their show at Sonisphere UK last year they brought in 200 tonnes of pyrotechnics. The heat from the stage was intense and could be felt metres away.By =Gustavo Rivas Valderrama from temuco, chile (Rammstein - feuer) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24890185@N05/2503149979
A Good Crowd
If the band are rubbish you less likely to enjoy the gig, that much is obvious. But what about the crowd? Imagine if you've been waiting for ages to see your favourite band and when that day finally arrives the crowd around you won't stop booing for no reason, are constantly heckling the performers, and fights are always breaking out. This will ruin the atmosphere and affect the extent to which you can appreciate the live performance. If the crowd are the opposite, if they enjoy the music, don't heckle very much, and are generally very friendly, the atmosphere can be great. One of the lovely aspects of going to see live music is the people you meet. Before you meet them you know that you'll have a shared interest, the music you're going to see, and you can have some great conversations and make new friends. Festivals are even better at this element as you spend several days surrounded by people who like similar music to you. So the crowd can play a large role in determining how much you enjoy the whole experience.
Weather
I thought I'd give the elements an honourable mention. Now this may not be a problem for those of you who life in places where the weather is consistently warm and dry and the sky sparkles in the sun and everyone's smiling all the time. Well that's not always the case here. In the UK outside events always run the risk of being rained on. While it's still possible to enjoy gigs in the rain, it's a fact that they're easier to enjoy if it's at least dry. At the moment I'm currently hoping that the beginning of July will be warm and dry for Sonisphere Knebworth. It was hot pretty much right the way through last year, and was dry apart from one shower on the Sunday that only lasted three or so minutes. To summarise, gigs benefit from good weather as you'd expect.
So I think that its a combination of all these things that makes a great live show. That's all for now. Thanks,
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Please note that the inclusion of images in this entry does not mean that the authors are affiliated with, or endorse, me or my work. Effort has been made to attribute the images included to their original author, please see the caption next to each image for this.
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